Hd Don’t Cry
For L.A.
When Los Angeles was given several months earlier this year to find a suitable financing package for an NFL expansion franchise, this newspaper referred to the process as rich guys’ chess. Now that the match is over, it’s tempting to conclude that the rich guys on one side of the table the National Football League owners won, with a whopping $700 million deal from Houston that blew the L.A. bidders out of the water.
But the story is not that simple and the instant analyses of what went wrong and who is to blame hardly do justice to this highly textured fiasco. Eli Broad and Ed Roski did not upend Michael Ovitz’s last-minute proposal at last week’s NFL owners’ meeting. L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas was not at fault for steadfastly pushing the Coliseum site. Mayor Richard Riordan was not wrong to side with the Coliseum plan, as opposed to Peter O’Malley’s proposal for a football stadium next to Chavez Ravine. Ovitz was not the bad guy for trying to upstage Broad and Roski with his own stadium plan nor was Marvin Davis for deciding not to enter the fray.
What finally happened is quite simple: The Houston group, led by businessman Bob McNair (who, by the way, sold Cogen Technologies earlier this year for $1.1 billion) was willing to put down more money than the L.A. folks a few hundred million more, as it turns out. That Houston happens to be the nation’s 11th-largest media market or that declining fan support led the Houston Oilers to move to Tennessee in 1996 took a back seat to all that cash.
What allowed Houston to offer so much, of course, was the $195 million in public funds that will go toward construction of a new stadium. Without public financing, it’s doubtful whether McNair would spend $700 million for a franchise fee. That’s why NFL honchos kept telling L.A. to get public money. More taxpayer dollars means more for the owners.
L.A. told the NFL to get lost.
If there is any virtue in this tortuous saga, it’s in that public steadfastness. The national media, no doubt egged on by certain NFL owners, have portrayed Angelenos as lazy, vacuous beachgoers uninterested in anything but the latest box-office grosses. That includes having a professional football team. How shocking! How utterly un-American!
But Angelenos know a thing or two about deal making, and in the end, these NFL guys came across as little more than snake-oil salesmen, as they expressed disbelief, even umbrage, about not being able to close the sale. (You can almost hear them saying, “You’re gonna’ be soooorry.”) Which is reason enough to declare victory.
Since California is often considered a trend-setter especially as it relates to fiscal policy the victory would be even sweeter if other municipalities take L.A.’s lead in saying to sports owners: “No more handouts.” It’s asking a lot, because the promise of a big-league franchise can be intoxicating to places like Jacksonville or Cleveland or, yes, Houston. But a couple hundred million bucks can go for a lot more noble pursuits than football stadiums.
As for L.A., now that it’s been decided how not to spend public funds, isn’t it time to discuss how best to use that potential money as in schools, cops and infrastructure? Get that picture resolved and Los Angeles can truly be the winner.
